Helminth burden in stray cats from Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract

73 SummaryTo get an overview on the prevalence of intestinal helminths, between 2010 and 2012, fecal samples from 215 stray cats from area of Thessaloniki, Greece, were tested by coprological methods. From the total number of fecal samples examined, 55.8 % were infected with at least one intestinal parasite and 16.3 % had co-infection. Five different parasite species were found. The most prevalent helminth was Dipylidium caninum (39.53 %), followed by Toxocara cati (18.14 %), Ancylostoma spp. (11.63 %), Taenia taeniaeformis (8.37 %) and Toxascaris leonina (0.93 %). The results showed that A. tubaeforme and T. taeniaeformis were more prevalent in males, while D. caninum, T. cati and T. leonina in female cats, without statistical significance. The prevalence of Ancylostoma spp. and T. cati were significantly higher in young cats (< 1 year old) than in adults (> 1 year old). The most common association was between D. caninum and T. cati.

A survey study on gastrointestinal parasites of stray cats in Azarshahr, (East Azerbaijan province, Iran)

“…Coman attribute the prevalence of this cestode with the importance of rodent in the diet of these cats (Coman 1972). In our study, the prevalence of the D. caninum was 58 %, which is compatible with the findings of the previous studies done in Brazil (52.6) (Labarthe et al 2004) and Iran (68.1 and 49.5 %) (Arbabi and Hooshyar 2009;Zibaei et al 2007), However, the prevalence of this parasite was higher than the previously recorded rates by other surveys from various countries (Borji et al 2011;Calvete et al 1998;Canto et al 2013;Dalimi and Mobedi 1992;Jittapalapong et al 2007;Khalafalla 2011;Lefkaditis et al 2014;Raji et al 2013;Ramos et al 2013). High prevalence of this parasite in resent survey could be due to the fact that D. caninum requires fleas as intermediary hosts and cats infected after ingesting infected fleas (Labarthe et al 2004).…”

“…In the present study, the overall prevalence of parasitic infection (at least with one of the intestinal helminth species in stray cats of 94 % was similar to that reported in previous studies, conducted in other Iranian cities such as Isfahan (98.5 %) (Jamshidi et al 2002), Shiraz (92.9 %) (Zibaei et al 2007 (Raji et al 2013). However, the identified prevalence rate in this study was more than that of the earlier researches, conducted in different contexts such as Italy (35 %) (Riggio et al 2013), northern Italy (50.4 %) (Spada et al 2013) Hungary (39.6 %) (Capari et al 2013), Germany (33.6 %) (Becker et al 2012), Mexico (53 %) (Canto et al 2013), Greece (55.8 %) (Lefkaditis et al 2014), Thailand (11.9 %) (Jittapalapong et al 2007), Brazil (67.12 %) (Ramos et al 2013). Moreover, the most common helminth parasites, detected in our study, were M. lineatus (78 %) and T. cati (78 %).…”

“…M. lineatus was the dominant tapeworm reported in our study with a prevalence rate of 79 % which was higher than that reported in Spain (13.8 %) (Calvete et al 1998), Italy (1.2 %) (Riggio et al 2013), Iran (13.4 and 8 %) (Arbabi and Hooshyar 2009;Borji et al 2011). The T. taeniaeformis prevalence (60 %) was relatively similar to that found by Coman (1972) in Australia (78 %), Stoichev et al (1982) in Bulgaria (75.5 %), Abu-Madi et al (2008) in Qatar (74 %) and Borthakur and Mukharjee (2011) in India (70.4 %) but the prevalence rate of this cestode in our study was higher than that recorded in Spain (8.6 and 22 %) (Calvete et al 1998;Millan and Casanova 2009), Nile Delta of Egypt (22 %) (Khalafalla 2011), Christmas Island (7.14 %) (Adams et al 2008), Greece (8.37 %) (Lefkaditis et al 2014), Mexico (4 %) (Canto et al 2013), Nigeria (6.67 %) (Raji et al 2013), Brazil (0.68 %) (Ramos et al 2013) and Iran (2, 9.6, 15, 12.3 and 9.2 %) (Arbabi and Hooshyar 2009;Borji et al 2011;Changizi et al 2007;Jamshidi et al 2012;Zibaei et al 2007). Coman attribute the prevalence of this cestode with the importance of rodent in the diet of these cats (Coman 1972).…”

“…Moreover, the most common helminth parasites, detected in our study, were M. lineatus (78 %) and T. cati (78 %). The prevalence of T. cati infection was higher than the estimated prevalence previously found in Christmas Island (53.57 %) (Adams et al 2008), Northern Germany (27.1 %) (Becker et al 2012), Spain (55.2 %) (Calvete et al 1998), Mexico (3 %) (Canto et al 2013), Hungary (17.4 %) (Capari et al 2013), Thailand (3.5 %) (Jittapalapong et al 2007), Egypt (9 %) (Khalafalla 2011), India (4 %) (Krecek et al 2010), Brazil (25.2 %) (Labarthe et al 2004), Greece (18.14 %) (Lefkaditis et al 2014), Spain (35 %) (Millan and Casanova 2009), Romania (20.3 %) (Mircean et al 2010), Australia (3.2 %), (Palmer et al 2008), Nigeria (16.67 %) (Raji et al 2013), England (34.8 %) (Nichol et al 1981), Brazil (4.11 %) (Ramos (Riggio et al 2013), Argentina (61.2 %) (Sommerfelt et al 2006), Northern Italy (33.1 %) (Spada et al 2013), as well as in Iranian contexts including Shiraz (42.6 %) (Zibaei et al 2007), Northern Iran (44 %) (Sharif et al 2007), Mashhad (28.84 %) (Borji et al 2011), North of Iran (8 %) (Changizi et al 2007), Isfahan (13 %) (Jamshidi et al 2002), Tehran (42.31 %) (Mirzayans 1973), Kashan (13.3) (Arbabi and Hooshyar 2009), Ahvaz (8.3 %), Tehran (23 %) (Bahadori et al 2004), However, similar prevalence of T. cati infection has been recorded in Denmark (79 %) by Engbaek et al (1984). The most likely reasons for the increased prevalence of T. cati in our studies were the poor hygiene, lack of anthelmintics drug used in stray cats, the presence of high humidity, and moderate temperatures (Arbabi and Hooshyar 2009).…”

“…Various factors likes influence on the parasitic burden in stray cats; geographical region, season of the year, administration of antiparasitic treatment and factors related to population parameters (age, sex, breed) (Mircean et al 2010). Previous studies have usually recorded a high prevalence of parasites in stray and feral cats (Adams et al 2008;Becker et al 2012;Calvete et al 1998;Canto et al 2013;Capari et al 2013;Coman 1972;Duarte et al 2010;Engbaek et al 1984;Jittapalapong et al 2007;Khalafalla 2011;Krecek et al 2010;Labarthe et al 2004;Lefkaditis et al 2014;Millan and Casanova 2009;Ramos et al 2013;Riggio et al 2013;Stoichev et al 1982). In Iran, little is known about the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in stray cats.…”